"up to your ass" means that you are being overwhelmed with something. The literal meaning is supposed to be that something is piled up so high that it reaches your butt. There's a related expression "up to [one's] eyeballs", which to me makes more sense because your eyeballs are a lot higher than your butt. It's possible that the "ass" variation is more popular because of the profanity.

i.e. "I am up to my ass in work" = "I have a very large amount of work".

So "up to your ass in alligators" in this context would mean "surrounded by alligators".

I do not know what this proverb means, though. I have never seen or heard it.

Last edited by Yudan Taiteki on Fri 10.05.2007 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

coco wrote:
I try to understand Mike's proverb of this post, but it's very difficult to me.

Mike Cash wrote
Always remember: When you're up to your ass in alligators it's hard to remember you came to clean out the swamp.

I could not figure out what "up to" and "ass in" mean.
Then either interpretation looks very weird or silly.

1) When you (plural) are going to put your hips in alligators, it's hard to remember you came to clean out the swamp.

2) When your donkey is approaching to a swamp full of alligators, it's hard to remember you came to clean out the swamp.

Could anyone explain what Mike's proverb means, please?
Thank you.

to put it literally it means as richv explained. when you are overwhelmed with problems, it's hard to remember what your original plan was.

up to your ass in alligators is an expression.. meaning there are so many alligators they pile up to your ass.

in MIke's expression the person came to clean the swamp but the amount of alligators overwhelmed him and he was not able to clean the swamp as he was now more worried with the problem of getting rid of the alligators.

his response was to the person who wanted to learn Japanese but was being responded to by people who weren't so helpful.. (ironically)

it is also part of a quote

Alligator Allegory:
The objective of all dedicated product support employees should be to thoroughly analyze all situations, anticipate all problems prior to their occurrence, have answers for these problems, and move swiftly to solve these problems when called upon. However, when you are up to your ass in alligators, it is difficult to remind yourself that your initial objective was to drain the swamp.

unfortunately for the life of me I can't find the person who originally used this phrase.